I had created this Page
at the beginning of 2018, since no other place can compete with Youtube
and its near-monopoly on
video content, in order to reach a broader
audience. But it was deleted
without explanation by Facebook short of its first anniversary. I can't
even know the precise date of termination. Youtube did
at least bother to send emails notifying of the removal of a video or of
a whole channel, but Facebook has only internal notifications for posts removals. Here is
how it happened.

I got two warnings from Facebook, dated December 24th and December 25th, 2018:

When
I logged in on December 28th and saw these messages, I immediately
appealed the decisions through the automated procedure, as shown above,
though the specific posts alledgedly violating the Communnity Standards
weren't even accessible, since they had been removed. It means that I didn't –and still don't– even know which posts got me these "strikes".
At least, Youtube was specific about the videos alledgedly violating
their rules –three speeches of Hassan Nasrallah–, though they didn't say more than that. I don't know if the whole Page was finally removed because of a third "strike" –Facebook does not even state how much "strikes" you can get before termination– or because of something else, like constant flagging and reports by cyber-IDF soldiers and Hasbara trolls. But I am positive it has to
do with my anti-Zionist content. It is a blatant attempt to take down important speech and silence already marginalized voices, as stated by Vera Eidelman from the ACLU.

Of
course, one should always protest and complain using the due
procedures. After all,
Facebook has been known to restore such Pages after the public outcry
following their removal without proper reason (TeleSur, VenezuelAnalysis, etc.). I did protest, and I am still expecting
an answer from them, without much hope, since earlier appeals as
old as September 17th are still awaiting a response almost 4 months
later, as shown below (screenshot dated January 4th, 2019). Appeals are not suspensive.

Ever since September 2018, when the crackdown on my page began, tens of tens of my posts were thus removed as Spam or Community Standards Infringement, and a shadow censorship was applied to my page. Thus, my posts didn't appear on the majority of my subscribers' feed, drastically reducing its readership from the thousands to the tens. But it seems it was not enough, and my page was finally completely removed. Without any mention of a motive, corpus delicti and mere notification of removal of my page, not even in Facebook's internal notifications on my personnal account, we are clearly beyond kafkaesque.

This
witch-hunt against the voice of the Resistance Axis online, especially
Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah (I am the main translator
of his speeches in English and French, voluntary and non-affiliated), is
not new. Over and over again –most often after Israeli-backed
indictment campaigns–, in 2012, 2014, 2016 and june 2018,
Facebook, Youtube and Twitter closed down all accounts affiliated to the
Lebanese –and Palestinian– Resistance, including Al-Manar TV Channel,
banned for good. In 2014 and 2016,
Facebook was hunting down Nasrallah's very picture and temporarily
blocking the accounts that featured it, even though they were
individuals having no link whatsoever with the organization: not
only Hezbollah's missiles and fighters, but the very voice and picture
of its Secretary General are considered as an existential threat for
Israel, whose paid trolls keep reporting his videos as terrorist hate-speech to ban mercilessly. The
right to information, neutrality or equity is a chimera in the Internet
Giants' turf, where only alternative views, especially videos hostile to Zionism, are
subject to censorship and banishment.

It is a scandal that the speeches of Hassan Nasrallah are banned on Youtube. Whatever one thinks of his politics, it cannot be doubted that Nasrallah is among the shrewdest and most serious political observers in the world today. Israeli leaders carefully scrutinize Nasrallah’s every word. Why are the rest of us denied this right? One cannot help but wonder whether Nasrallah’s speeches are censored because he doesn’t fit the stereotype of the degenerate, ignorant, blowhard Arab leader. It appears that Western social media aren’t yet ready for an Arab leader of dignified mind and person.

Thankfully, my first article got the attention of Ron Unz, who offered to safeguard my videos in his own website, and I published them back gradually in a new Dailymotion Channel from where they are automatically saved in The Unz Review's internal storage system.
Thus, even if they end up deleted by Dailymotion, they'll still be
accessible in one and same place without need to re-upload them again. I will keep posting my videos on Dailymotion –though it has its own, more subtle way of censorship: age-restricting videos, burying them in the search results... –, and I
call on everyone to subscribe to my channel on the Unz Review (RSS feed). Whatever happens, the Electronic Intifada to which Hassan Nasrallah called will carry on.

Use the online form or send an email to Facebook to denounce the removal of the Page Resistance News Unfiltered: info@facebook.com; disabled@facebook.com; appeals@facebook.com; info@support.facebook.com

2 commentaires:

Yes indeed. Though I doubt Voltaire ever said that. Many quotes are falsely attributed to him in order to make him look like some kind of advocate of free speech (like "I don’t agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it."). He was an immensely rich man, friend of the rich and the powerful, and an avowed enemy of the people. He hunted down Rousseau and tried to have him burnt along with his books (see the last sentence of Voltaire's "Sentiment des citoyens" against Rousseau, published anonymously but unanimously attributed to him : "if we punish an impious novelist slightly, we punish a vile seditious with capital punishment.")